A TUMMY bug has slowed down Birkdale swimmer Alicia Coutts but did not stop her winning a gold and a silver medal at the Glasgow Commonwealth Games.
Coutts swam the second leg in the 4x200 freestyle relay and despite lagging towards the end, her team went on to win gold in 7:49.90 seconds ahead of Canada (7:51.67) and England (7:52.45) on Saturday night.
However, the lingering bowel infection, which Coutts contracted before leaving Australia for the pre-Games training camp in Manchester, did stop the 26-year-old winning a medal in the 100m butterfly.
Coutts, who won bronze in the event at the 2012 London Olympics, touched in fourth behind Canada's Katerine Savard and England's Siobhan O'Connor, relinquishing her Commonwealth Games crown in the event.
She was able to hold her own in the 200m individual medley, finishing second behind O'Connor (2:08.21) in a time of 2:10.30.
The former Chisholm Catholic College student said she accepted she would not be at her best at Glasgow but was relieved she had won an individual medal.
"I gave it everything I had and my coach (John Fowlie) said it's the best silver medal race I've swum," she said after winning the silver," she said.
Medical staff believe she contracted the bowel infection from contact with animals. She works part-time at the RSPCA and has 11 pets at home.
Coutts had major abdominal surgery in 2007 to remove part of her bowel after being diagnosed with a benign tumour.
She showed her true colours on the weekend when she leapt to the defence of Aussie swimmer Melanie Schlanger, who took to Twitter to express her disappointment about being replaced by Coutts in the 200m freestyle relay team.
